


Shrove Tuesday

by Owl_by_Night



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (TV), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 18:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10037957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owl_by_Night/pseuds/Owl_by_Night
Summary: Set in the Baking AU, Colley and Will make pancakes. Takes place on the first pancake day after their relationship begins. Fluff abounds.





	

"Please come," Will says, with the face that Colley just can't resist. "It's traditional, and you can't not have pancakes on pancake day."   
Colley, who has an essay to write and his lab book to update for tomorrow afternoon, is sceptical.   
"Are you sure this isn't just because I can cook?"   
"Well.... maybe? A little bit. Emma can burn anything given the chance and I don't trust Jon anywhere near something I have to eat."   
Colley winces at the thought. He has seen Jon in a lab and can't bear to think of that spirit of scientific enquiry let loose in a kitchen.   
"I do have work though," he says, aware that his resolve is crumbling. If he gets some time in the library later he might be able to take a few hours off for pancakes, and for Will.   
Will presses his advantage with kisses, promises of how he might be rewarded, either heedless of the other people in the library cafe or perhaps enjoying the audience. He hasn't changed entirely, although Colley gets to see the sweetness under the act. He knows if he asked him to stop, Will would. As it is, it amuses him, particularly when he thinks of Will when they first met and how certain of himself he'd seemed to be, how impossibly out of Colley's league.   
"Ok, I'll come and make pancakes, but I really can't stay over."  
"Thank you," Will says dramatically, "I mean it, you're saving me from a terrible death at the hands of Jonathan Strange's cooking."

In the end, it turns out that while Jonathan is a culinary menace, Bell is a very competent cook. She and Colley take over the pancake making while the others set up camp in the kitchen, crowded around the table with a collection of mismatched plates and identical hopeful expressions. Will has music playing, skipping through different songs, mediating the argument on what to listen to. Art comes in to object to the noise interrupting work on his dissertation and stays for pancakes, watching in horrified fascination as Jon tries increasingly peculiar combinations of pancake fillings.   
Colley is a pancake purist and eats his with lemon and sugar. He feeds bits of pancake to Will, fingers soaked in lemon juice, trying to make a convert of him and convince him that Nutella on a pancake is an abomination. He eats sporadically in between cooking batches of batter, taking the last ones or the slightly less than perfect ones, enjoying the praise and open flattery he gets, and the warm feeling in the room when everyone is fed. They applaud when he tosses the pancakes, and he lets them try and fail to do the same. Emma, true to form, manages to scorch her attempt and even as he stands holding the smoking pan out of the window to avoid setting off the fire alarms, Colley is glad to be there. Glad to be with friends, and glad to be with Will, in one of his softer moods this evening and obviously (but to Colley's mind bafflingly) proud of his boyfriend's culinary skills.

When the evening winds down and Colley guiltily remembers the forgotten lab report, Will offers to walk him home.   
"I meant it about needing to work," he says, regretful at the thought of a night spent apart. It's too easy to stay, too easy to be seduced by the thought of sharing Will's bed.   
"I know," Will says. "I'll be good. I'll bring a book."   
Colley expects him to make more of a nuisance of himself, or get bored, but he actually does as promised and curls up on Colley's bed. He brought pyjamas with him, and an oversized hoodie from some society or other, soft and cosy in a way that would make Colley want to cuddle him if he weren't so conscious of the work waiting for him. It's new this, Will staying over just because, but Colley decides not to question it. It feels good, being together in companionable silence, with the regular noise of turning pages to tell him that Will is there while he works.   
Will falls asleep eventually, still wearing his hoodie and with the Russian copy of Harry Potter open on his chest. When Colley finally shuts down his laptop and crawls into bed in the small hours, Will curls up to him, warm and sleepily affectionate. The smell of cooking pancakes still lingers in his hair. When Colley kisses him he tastes of lemon juice and sweet as sugar.


End file.
